Emaline Little, junior, noticed that MHS only offers five language classes, Spanish, French, German, Latin and American Sign Language, which left her and other students who were interested in more languages without an opportunity to learn them.
“I know a lot of people are theoretically interested in learning a language, but they get locked out of it and intimidated by classes and grades,” Little said.
This led her to start a linguistics club.
The Linguistics Association provides a space for students to learn a language at their own pace without spending their free time studying or paying for tutors and classes. The club started in early March and has about 20 members who meet weekly during Ac Lab to study vocabulary and grammar.
There’s a lot more out there that’s really fascinating, and you don’t get that because Spanish and French are Romance languages, German is Germanic and Latin is dead,
— Ivy Wang
The students in the club vote on the language they want to learn. The first language the club has focused on is Haitian Creole.
Little plans to switch languages quarterly, but as the club progresses, the focus might shift.
“The main difficulty is narrowing down what resources we are going to use, and what order we’re going to do it. We have to create our lesson plan,” Little said.
In order to create the plans for each meeting, Little uses Quizlet and different educational sites.
Julie Bayha, Spanish teacher, sponsors the Linguistics Association and said the internet can be beneficial to students learning languages.
“With the growth of AI, there’s more opportunities than ever with languages and linguistics,” Bayha said.
I know a lot of people are theoretically interested in learning a language, but they get locked out of it and intimidated by classes and grades,
— Emaline Little
Like many other clubs, the Linguistics Association allows students with similar interests and the desire to learn a new language to study together, and Bayha provides that space for students.
“Students are looking into languages that aren’t offered at Marquette so it gives them time and space to learn about something they really enjoy,” Bayha said.
The club goes over grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of the language they’re learning, but as vice president, Ivy Wang, sophomore, likes to add in history facts as well.
“I’m a history nerd, so I go and see what influences the language has. Emaline is more of the grammar person,” Wang said.
Wang said she has always been interested in languages, and with only so many foreign language classes available at MHS, Wang struggles to find a language that she is fully intrigued by.
“There’s a lot more out there that’s really fascinating, and you don’t get that because Spanish and French are Romance languages, German is Germanic and Latin is dead,” Wang said.
